Hypothetically Speaking
by LordB
Summary: Karatsu, Numata, Sasaki and Makino discuss the possible explanations for Yuji Yata's left hand. Edited to correct mistakes.


Hypothetically Speaking

There was a lot to be said about Yuji Yata and his foul-mouthed left hand, and Numata was usually the one that would say the worst of it. Of course the puppet itself was not exactly guilt-free when it came to verbal abuse, but it was generally argued that the host body didn't deserve the physical abuse that he often had to endure when a particularly snide comment was made to either of the other two men that made up the Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service. True, Kereellis was not the most popular, or indeed the most helpful, of the unusual powers that for some reason these men had, but he was accepted as one of the team nonetheless.

A mixed blessing, perhaps. Yata did not have the confidence of either Karatsu or Numata and Kereellis more than made up for it. However, he _was_ incredibly obnoxious and annoyed Numata to no end.

It was after a slight disagreement over 'Numata's questionable intelligence' that the aforementioned voiced his suspicions about the sentient puppet. Yata had left the clubroom for a class at this point and when the door had slammed shut after his departure Numata had turned to Karatsu, Makino and Sasaki with a frown and a flow of offence had cascaded from his mouth. He paused in thought after about three minutes of this furious tirade.

"You don't really think it's an alien, do you?" he asked pushing his sunglasses further up his nose and looking back at the door. "It _has_ to be ventriloquism, right? I mean, he says a lot of things that maybe Yata's just too shy to say himself."

Makino glared up at Numata from a magazine.

"I don't know if Kereellis is an alien, but he's definitely something else. I don't think Yata has control over him," she said, flicking a page over angrily.

Karatsu was sitting on the couch playing his PSP disinterestedly, without taking his eyes from the screen he said: "Have you considered multiple personalities?"

"Dissociative identity disorder, you mean," Sasaki interjected whilst looking at her laptop. She had rested her chin in her right hand. "It's an interesting idea I suppose. DID's actually only relatively recently been recognised here. Before cases were generally diagnosed as schizophrenia since they both have similar symptoms, but Yata doesn't really exhibit symptoms of either. Then there's also the question of how he'd be able to concentrate another personality into his left-hand. It's not as though there are any recorded cases for similar situations, but I guess there has to be a first time for everything."

"It wouldn't explain his powers, though," Makino argued. "What about the monkey?"

"Maybe he made it up. Ventriloquists can do all sorts of things with their voices," Numata said with a wave of his hand. Karatsu looked up at this.

"Don't be an idiot, Numata, you were there when the monkey started speaking through my powers, he couldn't have made it up, and anyway, how can you try to disprove someone's powers when you _dowse _for corpses?"

Numata leant against the wall, crossed his arms and directed his next comment towards Karatsu. "Okay, so maybe he _does_ have some kind of power, there's still nothing to prove that Kereellis is an alien, maybe he's a ventriloquist with the ability to talk to the dead. You know, like you or Kikuchi."

Karatsu looked back at the game in his lap but didn't carry on playing. In front of him Sasaki closed the laptop with a click, laced her fingers together then placed her hands on the table.

"I agree with Makino when she says that Kereellis is not the Yata we know," she began slowly. "For the moment let's say that a _part _of Yata has similar powers to Karatsu. Considering his past experiences I would say Yata is a prime candidate for DID. If we assume he does have it, and that he _has_ managed to channel that particular personality into his puppet then maybe it's this other self-state that has control over his powers. We also know how much Yata really likes his alien conspiracy theories, perhaps it's logical that another personality would call himself an alien- it could be that it's a comfort for him. An escape."

Numata ran a hand through his hair and frowned again.

"Past experiences?" He asked. Sasaki looked over her shoulder at him.

"A patient with dissociative identity disorder is likely to have suffered from some childhood trauma- severe mistreatment or neglect; physical, sexual or emotional abuse; overwhelming stress; loss of parents… there are quite a few reasons for it, but basically they're the kind of things that would stop a child from developing just one secure identity," she explained.

"That's Lucian Freud or something, right?" Numata said.

Sasaki gave a little smile and turned back to the table. "Sigmund. But yes, his theories have contributed."

"See, not a complete idiot, am I?" Numata gave a toothy grin. Karatsu rolled his eyes.

Meanwhile, Makino was studying Sasaki uneasily.

"How do you know about Yata's… um… past experiences?" She asked. Sasaki placed a hand on top of the closed laptop making her point clear. Karatsu looked slightly more interested now.

"What happened?"

Makino caught Sasaki's eyes and then shook her head. "It's not our place to say anything," she answered. "And if you ask him about it, Numata, I'll embalm you in your sleep."

Numata's mouth closed at Makino's somewhat out of character remark, then he thought of something else and opened it again.

"Do you hack into all our files?" He asked worriedly. Sasaki ignored him and carried on with the previous train of thought.

"Of course, if we _do_ assume that he has DID, then we also have to consider the possibility of more than one other self-state, and if there _are _others then maybe he has other powers that we don't know about because _he _doesn't know about them."

Karatsu shook his head.

"Or maybe Kereellis is what both he and Yata say he is," he said going back to his game while Makino made a small gesture of agreement. Sasaki sighed and opened her laptop up to do whatever she did. Behind her Numata pushed off from the wall and walked down to the other end of the room to turn the television on, found a channel he liked the look of and then sat on the couch with Karatsu.


End file.
